MadaboutKitcars

New to the forum,but not new to building kits and have been looking at maybe trying my hand at doing a nice Miglia conversion.
Now this is where it gets questionable !
Has anyone built one using an auto box ?
I bullt a 7 using a rover v8 and auto box with a b&m shifter,edelbrock inlet and carb,great car,tight squeeze and skint knuckles every job.
Did Triumph do an auto ? Or would I need to look at an alternative engine and box ? Any recommendations

Thanks. John

Was it a BW65, I feel like I've seen one one eBay.

Yes it was a bw65, huge bell housing and very small prop shaft ,
Hoping there is something that will fit onto a vittesse chassis

Good evening John and welcome to the Miglia forum..


I would think that fitting an auto box not such a problem.

I fitted a Rover v8 into a Vitesse chassis and would work OK.
So if you can work out the difference between the manual box and auto this should help work out the size and space needed. As for the bell housing, i am sure this would not be an issue due to the space between the bulkhead i supply.

Hope this helps John.

If you google Rover V8 in a Herald , it brings up several links to similar topics .
You will be very lucky if you can get a BW65 into a crucifixal chassis without modifications. Diff position and prop angle may be challenging as well.
You may want to consider this engine swap AFTER the vehicle has been inspected .

The bulkhead is the easy bit , you can make that fit anything. It is the distance between the rails on a crucifixal chassis at that point that will be the issue. From memory , the bellhousing wont sit there with the rails in their stock format and to raise it enough to clear them will bring a heap of other issues to the table.

The wires might be getting a bit crossed here,what I'm asking is there a triumph engine,either 4 or 6 cylinder that uses an auto box ?
If I do decide I want to build a Miglia I think I might want to stick with the Triumph engine in whatever guise that might be .
Another thought I had was for a BMW straight 6 or An MX5 2.0 auto

El primer ,I do understand exactly what you mean ,the distance between the rails does look too narrow to be an easy fit for the bw65 tranny

Ah ok. sorry. I think Micky1mo might be the guy to discuss BMW options with and Chris at Tribute should know his way around the MX5 enough to help answer your enquiry maybe.
As for the Triumph question . I don't think the Herald or Vitesse was offered as an auto , but couldn't swear to it.
Locally to me and only about 10-15 miles from Miglia is a company called Southern Triumph [url]www.southerntriumph.co.uk[/url]

The guy who runs that , Mark Swingler is an absolute fountain of knowledge on all things Triumph , he also builds modified versions of early TR's etc. including works replica's etc. He will definitely answer your question for you and a visit to him could easily be tied into a day trip to see the Miglia crew as well.

The Triumph 2000 could be ordered with a BW type 35 slush box and I have seen at least one that had been retro fitted into a Vitesse on ebay. Probably going to be a bit of a rare beast now though.

I'm currently fitting an mx5 auto to a separate chassis vehicle and due to the sump and gear-linkage it needs massive mods. BW35 (or similar C3) is much slimmer (only 3 speed though).

Another is Willow Triumph in the North East, as is was something I was thing about doing.

http://www.willowtriumph.com/

This is on eBay, not sure if it is any good.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triumph-2000-2500-BW65-Automatic-Gearbox-and-ancillaries-/331130876418?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item4d18f03202

I used to have a MkII 2500PI which had an autobox.

That would be the way I would hope to go ,one change might be for webber carbs in place of the injection.I do like a carburettor engine,is that an age thing ?

Oddly enough, my PI was actually on carbs.

It had a TR6 engine installed at the factory, because as far as I can ascertain, it was a prototype for the South African built Chicane.

Surely it wasn't a PI then?

It was badged as a PI, and registered as a PI, but it wasn't, as you have pointed out, actually a PI :-)

I need to drive auto boxes because of a knackered ankle. The old slush boxes aren't great so I chose a modern BMW 2.8 Auto as the base for mine.

Check out the build on the Tribute forum if you want some pictures. It was Chris at Tribute who did the body.

I'm an amputee and don't have a clutch leg,I can drive a manual shift for short drives but much prefer my autos.
I have thought about just building a standard triumph chassis ,enging and manual box,get the testing done then change to aBMW engine and auto tranny.
It's starting all over again for me,I sold up everything a few years ago,my V 8 engined Seven all my tools,everything and moved to Florida.Big family changes meant we sold up again last year to move back home so now looking for a new house with a garage to build something special